By: Kat Marusiak and Darien Johnsen
The transit system in Abbotsford is garbage. There’s no beating around the bush: it’s absolute old trash melting on a sidewalk on a hot summer day. After changes to the schedule times and routes were made over the summer, I was anticipating a much more pleasant public transportation experience this semester. However, they have somehow managed the seemingly impossible feat of actually making it even worse.
I’m 100 per cent certain there’s going to be a death by suffocation on the 7:45 a.m. bus to UFV — I’m actually surprised it didn’t blow up last week from over capacity. There are only two bus lines that go to UFV: Route 1 (Highstreet/UFV), and Route 12 (UFV/Borquin). Where I live, the Highstreet/UFV line is the only bus that drives by the nearest stop to me. The buses now come and arrive at the school later, and for the majority of the day, they only run every half an hour. It is also an amazing rarity for a bus to actually arrive on time, and at this point, even when it does finally come, it often simply drives by, already so full of students that there are almost as many standing as sitting down.
The other day I waited over an hour for a bus that was supposed to run every half an hour while TWO (nope, not one, TWO) “not in service” buses drove past me. (Where were they going? Why not just pick up passengers if you’re going to drive past me in the same direction the bus is supposed to go anyway?) Then, when the bus finally did come, the driver was so inattentive that they drove past a poor passenger at a stop, who had probably been waiting just as long as I had, when they were less than a foot away from the door, holding out their hand and running. The driver stopped for about 0.00002 seconds before shutting the door and driving away, probably leaving the poor passenger stranded for another hour. Hopefully they didn’t need to get to work.
I have resigned myself to having to walk the 1.5 km to school most of this semester, despite the cold and wet weather that’s sure to come. I cannot rely on the public transit; if it is late or full, I can’t get to school on foot fast enough to be on time, even if I ran the whole way. I could get up much earlier and get to the school with over half an hour of nothing to do before class, but it’s a bit pathetic to me that a student should have to sacrifice even more sleep in the morning because the buses are so undependable. And even then, what if that bus is also full and just passes by? Wait for the next and hope for better luck? Might as well just walk. For students even farther away, it must be an even more frustrating ordeal.
Sometimes I feel bad for the drivers who have to bear the brunt of furious passengers, but there are some who drive past you if you don’t stand up immediately when they approach your stop. (Hint of advice: do NOT look at your phone while waiting for the bus.)
Either way, the transit system is insultingly terrible around here, especially for university students. At UFV, where there is never enough parking, and enrolment continues to grow with each passing year, we need a system that students can actually trust to get them where they need to be — and on time. University is overwhelming enough without having to deal with the extra stress.
Darien Johnsen is a UFV alumni who obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree with double extended minors in Global Development Studies and Sociology in 2020. She started writing for The Cascade in 2018, taking on the role of features editor shortly after.
She’s passionate about justice, sustainable development, and education.
